What caused the fire, how much money was discovered, from where did the cash originate and to where has it proceeded – the committee established by SC does not address these questions. A three-member panel formed by the former Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna to look into allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma has held that there is “sufficient substance” in the charges.
On March 14, charred clumps of money were reportedly found in a storage room in Justice Yashwant Varma’s official residence in Delhi when emergency workers moved to put out a fire at his house. No police complaint has been lodged so far in the case, despite a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the same.
The Supreme Court on March 22 appointed a committee, led by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and Justice Anu Sivaraman of the Karnataka High Court, to probe the incident.
The committee in its report, dated May 3, held Varma’s misconduct was “serious enough to call for initiation of proceedings for removal. Last week, The Leaflet and Bar and Bench published the report. It concluded that Varma had betrayed public trust by permitting “highly suspicious material in the shape of piles of currency notes to be stashed in the store room” of his official bungalow in Delhi when he was a judge at the Delhi High Court.
Varma, who was not present in Delhi at the time the fire was triggered, has claimed that the whole episode was a conspiracy to incriminate him. He said that the storeroom was not within the main building and was accessible to his personnel. He further stated that on March 14, family members and staff had not detected any cash in the storeroom after the fire was extinguished.
The committee, however, quoted eyewitness accounts and digital evidence to conclude that not only was half-burnt currency discovered at the premises after the fire, but it was taken away by Varma’s staff. It also concluded from testimonies and circumstantial evidence that Varma and his family had “covert or active control” over the storeroom.
The committee’s recommendation to move proceedings for Varma’s removal paves the way for a possible impeachment motion in Parliament, the sole constitutional method to remove a High Court judge. However, a careful reading of the report shows that most basic questions regarding the suspected cash go unanswered.
This is the core enigma that still needs to be unravelled. The report of the committee makes out, on the basis of at least 10 eyewitness accounts of Delhi Police and Fire Services officials, that half-burnt heaps of Rs 500 currency notes had been seen in the store room after the fire had been extinguished.
